Vested Property Act (Bangladesh)
Encyclopedia
The Vested Property Act is a controversial law in Bangladesh
that allows the Government to confiscate property from individuals it deems as an enemy of the state. Before the independence of Bangladesh in 1971, it was known as the Enemy Property Act and is still referred to as such in common parlance. The act is criticised as a tool for appropriating the lands of the minority population . It is officially estimated that about 75% of all Hindu lands in Bangladesh have been seized by using this act. Considerations are going on now to stop and repeal this act.
Chronologically, they are:
On November 6, 2008, the High Court division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh delivered its Rule Nisi upon the Government on the Enemy Property (Continuance of Emergency Provision) (Repeal) Act 1974 and subsequently promulgated Arpita Sampatty Protapyan Ain 2001 and cicular, administrative orders.
The order calls upon the respondent to show cause as to why instructions issued in the contents of presidential order 29 of 1972, act 45 and 46 of 1974, ordinance No. 92, 93 of 1976, Arpita Sampatty Protapyan Ain 2001 and circulars issued by government that are in contradiction with the fundamental rights and the charter of declaration of Independence of Bangladesh, 10 April 1971, should not be declared to be ultra vires the constitution.The Rule Nisi also stated why the properties so far incorporated in the list as Enemy (Vested) property should not be returned to the title holder/successor/legal possession holders and or such other or further order or orders passed as to this Court may seem fit and proper.The Rule is made returnable within 4 weeks from 28 October 2008.
was confiscated by the Bangladesh government after independence in 1971 . Because Datta's body was never found after he was arrested by the Pakistan Army
during the Bangladesh Liberation War
, an affidavit was brought forward that it could not be concluded that Datta had not voluntarily left the country.
The family property of Nobel Prize
winning economist
Amartya Sen
had been confiscated by the Pakistan government. In 1999, the Bangladesh government announced that it was investigating opportunities to return the property to Sen's family.
The survey also showed that the beneficiaries of the land grab through the act cut across all party lines. The political affiliation of direct beneficiaries of appropriated property was:
The greatest appropriation of Hindu property took place immediately after independence during the first Awami League government (1972-75) and during the first period of rule of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (1976-1980). Dr Barkat's work also showed that since 1948, 75% of the land of religious minorities in East Pakistan and subsequent Bangladesh had been confiscated through provisions of the act.
Dr Barkat also emphasized that less than 0.4% of the population of Bangladesh has benefited from the Enemy Property Act, demonstrating that this law has been abused by those in power through corruption, with no demonstrated sanction by the population at large.
population , which has declined from an estimated 30% in 1947 http://hinduism.about.com/od/history/a/humanrights.htm, to 17% in 1965 to less than 10% today, representing a loss of around 11 million people. Most of this population has been converted into Muslims and employed as servants and the rest left for India, while the more affluent Bangladeshi Hindus leaving due to the act have moved to USA, Canada, Europe and Australia.
Finally in the run up to the 2001 election Sheikh Hasina
and the Awami League succeeded in a drive to repeal the act. The Vested Properties Return Act (2001) was implemented (in a session boycoted by the opposition BNP and Jamaat members) in an effort to make amends for the confiscated property. However little progress has been made in returning or compensating lost property under the Khaleda Zia
government from 2001-2006.
In 2008, [HRCBM (Human Rights Congress for Bangladesh Minorities)]http://www.hrcbm.org filed a writ before Bangladesh Supreme Court under article 102 of the constitution..
An international conference organized by several Hindu activist groups held in London on 16 June 2005 was addressed by, among others, Lord Avebury of the British House of Lords and called for repeal of the act.
The law has been highlighted by the U.S. Department of State and Amnesty International
as a major human rights
concern that has contributed to internal displacement, emigration and disenfranchisement.
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
that allows the Government to confiscate property from individuals it deems as an enemy of the state. Before the independence of Bangladesh in 1971, it was known as the Enemy Property Act and is still referred to as such in common parlance. The act is criticised as a tool for appropriating the lands of the minority population . It is officially estimated that about 75% of all Hindu lands in Bangladesh have been seized by using this act. Considerations are going on now to stop and repeal this act.
Legal history
This law is the culmination of several successive discriminatory laws against non-Muslims passed while Bangladesh was part of Pakistan.Chronologically, they are:
- The East Bengal (Emergency) Requisition of Property Act (XIII of 1948)
- The East Bengal Evacuees (Administration of Property) Act (VIII of 1949)
- The East Bengal Evacuees (Restoration of Possession) Act (XXII of 1951)
- The East Bengal Evacuees (Administration of Immovable Property) Act (XXIV of 1951)
- The East Bengal Prevention of Transfer of Property and Removal of Documents and Records Act of 1952
- The Pakistan (Administration of Evacuees Property) Act (XII of 1957)
- The East Pakistan Disturbed Persons (Rehabilitation) Ordinance (No 1 of 1964)
- The Defence of Pakistan Ordinance (No. XXIII of 6 September, 1965)
- The Defence of Pakistan Rules of 1965
- The Enemy Property (Custody and Registration) Order of 1965
- The East Pakistan Enemy Property (Lands and Buildings Administration and Disposal Order of 1966.
- The Enemy Property (Continuance of Emergency Provision) Ordinance No. 1 of 1969
- Bangladesh (Vesting of Property and Assets) President's (Order No. 29 of 1972).
- The Enemy Property (Continuance of Emergency Provisions) (Repeal) Act (XLV of 1974)
- The Vested and Non-Resident Property (Administration) Act (XLVI of 1974)
- The vested and Non-Resident (Administration) (Repeal) Ordinance 1976 The Ordinance, (No. XCII of 1976).
- The Ordinance No. XCIII of 1976.
On November 6, 2008, the High Court division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh delivered its Rule Nisi upon the Government on the Enemy Property (Continuance of Emergency Provision) (Repeal) Act 1974 and subsequently promulgated Arpita Sampatty Protapyan Ain 2001 and cicular, administrative orders.
The order calls upon the respondent to show cause as to why instructions issued in the contents of presidential order 29 of 1972, act 45 and 46 of 1974, ordinance No. 92, 93 of 1976, Arpita Sampatty Protapyan Ain 2001 and circulars issued by government that are in contradiction with the fundamental rights and the charter of declaration of Independence of Bangladesh, 10 April 1971, should not be declared to be ultra vires the constitution.The Rule Nisi also stated why the properties so far incorporated in the list as Enemy (Vested) property should not be returned to the title holder/successor/legal possession holders and or such other or further order or orders passed as to this Court may seem fit and proper.The Rule is made returnable within 4 weeks from 28 October 2008.
Renamed as Vested Property Act
Though renamed as the Vested Property Act in 1974, the law still retains the fundamental ability to deprive a Bangladeshi citizen of his/her property simply by declaration of that person as an enemy of the state. Leaving the country through abandonment is cited as the most common reason for this, and it is frequently the case that Hindu families who have one or several members leaving the country (for economic as well as political reasons) have their entire property confiscated due to labeling as enemy .Newspaper reports
The Bangladeshi newspaper Daily Sangbad (21 March 1977) alleged that at that point in time, according to the government's own figures, 702,335 acres (2,842 km²) of cultivable land and 22,835 homes were listed as enemy property.Prominent cases
Much of the property of murdered Hindu politician Dhirendranath DattaDhirendranath Datta
Dhirendranath Datta was a Bengali lawyer by profession who was also active in the politics of undivided Bengal in pre-partition India, and later in East Pakistan...
was confiscated by the Bangladesh government after independence in 1971 . Because Datta's body was never found after he was arrested by the Pakistan Army
Pakistan Army
The Pakistan Army is the branch of the Pakistani Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. The Pakistan Army came into existence after the Partition of India and the resulting independence of Pakistan in 1947. It is currently headed by General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. The Pakistan...
during the Bangladesh Liberation War
Bangladesh Liberation War
The Bangladesh Liberation War was an armed conflict pitting East Pakistan and India against West Pakistan. The war resulted in the secession of East Pakistan, which became the independent nation of Bangladesh....
, an affidavit was brought forward that it could not be concluded that Datta had not voluntarily left the country.
The family property of Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
winning economist
Economist
An economist is a professional in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy...
Amartya Sen
Amartya Sen
Amartya Sen, CH is an Indian economist who was awarded the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to welfare economics and social choice theory, and for his interest in the problems of society's poorest members...
had been confiscated by the Pakistan government. In 1999, the Bangladesh government announced that it was investigating opportunities to return the property to Sen's family.
Professor Barkat's seminal work
A seminal work was published in 1997 by Professor Abul Barkat of Dhaka University, 'Inquiry into Causes and Consequences of Deprivation of Hindu Minorities in Bangladesh through the Vested Property Act' . This demonstrated that 925,050 Hindu households (40% of Hindu families in Bangladesh) have been affected by the Enemy Property Act. This included 748,850 families dispossessed of agricultural land. The total amount of land lost by Hindu households as a result of this discriminatory act was estimated at 1.64 million acres (6,640 km²), which is equivalent to 53 per cent of the total land owned by the Hindu community and 5.3 per cent of the total land area of Bangladesh.The survey also showed that the beneficiaries of the land grab through the act cut across all party lines. The political affiliation of direct beneficiaries of appropriated property was:
- Bangladesh Awami LeagueBangladesh Awami LeagueThe Bangladesh Awami League , commonly known as the Awami League, is the mainstream center-left, secular political party in Bangladesh...
44.2% - Bangaldesh Nationalist Party (BNP) 31.7%
- Jatiya Party 5.8%
- Jamaat-e-IslamiJamaat-e-IslamiThis article is about Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan. For other organizations of similar name see Jamaat-e-Islami The Jamaat-e-Islami , is a Pro-Muslim political party in Pakistan...
4.8% - Others 13.5%
The greatest appropriation of Hindu property took place immediately after independence during the first Awami League government (1972-75) and during the first period of rule of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (1976-1980). Dr Barkat's work also showed that since 1948, 75% of the land of religious minorities in East Pakistan and subsequent Bangladesh had been confiscated through provisions of the act.
Dr Barkat also emphasized that less than 0.4% of the population of Bangladesh has benefited from the Enemy Property Act, demonstrating that this law has been abused by those in power through corruption, with no demonstrated sanction by the population at large.
Effect on Bangladeshi demographics
The law in its implementation has been seen as a major driver behind the reduction of the Bangladeshi HinduHinduism in Bangladesh
Hinduism is the second largest religious affiliation in Bangladesh, covering more than 9.2% of the population, according to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics...
population , which has declined from an estimated 30% in 1947 http://hinduism.about.com/od/history/a/humanrights.htm, to 17% in 1965 to less than 10% today, representing a loss of around 11 million people. Most of this population has been converted into Muslims and employed as servants and the rest left for India, while the more affluent Bangladeshi Hindus leaving due to the act have moved to USA, Canada, Europe and Australia.
Repeal of the act
During Bangladesh's first three decades of independence many politicians made empty promised to repeal the act. The first government of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman vowed to repeal any laws that contradicted the values of the newly liberated country; the Enemy Property Act contravened non-communal provisions of the new constitution. But instead of being repealed it was sustained under a new name in 1974.Finally in the run up to the 2001 election Sheikh Hasina
Sheikh Hasina
Sheikh Hasina is a Bangladeshi politician and current Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She has been the President of the Awami League, a major political party, since 1981. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangladesh and widow of a reputed nuclear...
and the Awami League succeeded in a drive to repeal the act. The Vested Properties Return Act (2001) was implemented (in a session boycoted by the opposition BNP and Jamaat members) in an effort to make amends for the confiscated property. However little progress has been made in returning or compensating lost property under the Khaleda Zia
Khaleda Zia
Begum Khaleda Zia is the former First Lady of Bangladesh , and then Prime Minister of Bangladesh, having served from 1991 to 1996, becoming the first woman in the country's history and second in the Muslim world to head a democratic government as prime minister. She served again from 2001 until...
government from 2001-2006.
In 2008, [HRCBM (Human Rights Congress for Bangladesh Minorities)]http://www.hrcbm.org filed a writ before Bangladesh Supreme Court under article 102 of the constitution..
International concern
Congressman Crowley of the Bangladesh-American caucus has called for the repeal of the act , as have several Bangladeshi politicians and human rights activists. The current opposition Awami League has vowed to repeal the act if returned to power in the next elections, even though it has yet to acknowledge its own participation in implementation of the act during the 1972-75 period.An international conference organized by several Hindu activist groups held in London on 16 June 2005 was addressed by, among others, Lord Avebury of the British House of Lords and called for repeal of the act.
The law has been highlighted by the U.S. Department of State and Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
as a major human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
concern that has contributed to internal displacement, emigration and disenfranchisement.
See also
- Article, from BanglapediaBanglapediaBanglapedia, or the National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh, is the first Bangladeshi encyclopedia. It is available in print, CD-ROM format and online, in both Bangla and English. The print version comprises ten 500-page volumes...
- http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/engASA130062001?OpenDocument&of=COUNTRIES%5CBANGLADESH Amnesty International report on Bangladeshi Hindus
- http://www.bangladeshobserveronline.com/new/2006/06/25/front.htm The Bangladesh Observer article on protest against continued use of Enemy Property Act
- http://www.drishtipat.org/HRLaw/vestedprop.htm Full text of Vested Property Act on Drishtipat website (Bangladeshi human rights group)
- http://www.internal-displacement.org/idmc/website/countries.nsf/(httpEnvelopes)/9D331E5E7517987B802570B8005A71A4?OpenDocument Article on internal displacement of Bangladeshi Hindus on IDMC website
- Abul Barkat, Azizur Rahman, Shafique uz Zaman, Avijit Poddar: Impact of vested property act on rural Bangladesh: an exploratory study. Prepared for Association for Land Reform and Development, Bangladesh. Dhaka: University Research Corporation. 1996.
- Abul Barkat (ed.): An inquiry into causes and consequences of deprivation of Hindu minorities in Bangladesh through the Vested Property Act: framework for a realistic solution. Dhaka: PRIP Trust. 2000.
- Deprivation of affected million families: Living with Vested Property in Bangladesh, Abul Barkat, forthcoming.